Dawn masses usher in Christmas

Expectations and excitement grip the faithful as they start today the Filipino tradition of the Misa de Gallo. Most government workers, however, look forward to receiving their cost of living allowance or their Christmas bonuses.

For most, though, that simply means a last-minute rush to buy Christmas gifts. To others, the bonus simply means paying their debts as they struggle to meet their daily needs.

What is evident is that we have succumbed to the consumerist concept of Christmas. Other than the outright attempts by some quarters to eliminate Christ from Christmas, it is this commercialization of the Feast of the Nativity that threatens to secularize Christmas.

Still, it is the economic crisis that may in some way help us re-direct our attention to what Christmas actually means for a Christian. Christ was born to give God's message of transcendent love to us human beings. It is a love that forgives everything. And this was incarnated by Christ when He died on the Cross to prove that God continued to love us despite our sinfulness.

Anyway, my greetings to all of you. May Christmas enable all of us to internalize the meaning of love and how to touch the hearts of the less fortunate with it.

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Internationally-acclaimed musical genius Pancho Uytiepo yesterday caught me by surprise. He shared with me his dream of staging a concert with Mary Ann and Nenen Espina sometime next year.

"Perhaps it is a good idea for the descendants of Graciano Lopez Jaena to show that they have their talents, too," commented Pancho who keeps regaling Bacolod folks and those in Iloilo with his inimitable songs and piano prowess.

Mary Ann, the family pianist, and Nenen, our operatic tenor, are presenting their concert tomorrow night at Saltimboca. For Pancho that will be an occasion when he can discuss the details of the prospective concert.

They will miss, of course, another musician. Edwin Lopez, the former handler of the University of St. La Salle Choir. He is now in the United States. There, he had been enjoying himself doing part-time work as choirmaster of a church.

Incidentally, just an aside, I went home yesterday with decorative plants from the impressive garden of Pancho. I learned that some of these, especially the orchids, are sold exorbitantly in downtown Bacolod. But with Pancho, they are sold at bargain prices.

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I learned yesterday that PNP provincial chief Charles Calima withdrew his support for the installation of Task Force Mapalad members from Hacienda Malaga in La Castellana. The reason - the failure by the Department of Agrarian Reform to sign the memorandum of agreement that the agency should also install the members of their cooperative. Bob Cuenca said the TFM members were granted CLOAs to only several hectares while the rest of the beneficiaries will own some 215 hectares.

In short, why is DAR hesitant to install the "legitimate claimants"?

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Now, look and listen. The Sangguniang Panlunsod of Bacolod is looking into how the P10 million it appropriated for the Bacolod South East Asian Games Organizing Committee had been spent.

Two members of the city council - Councilors Al Victor Espino and Homer Bais - went on air yesterday and presented some questions that need to be answered.

The first involved the use of the Cebro buses for the Thailand Football Team members. What Espino pointed out is that the Thais had earlier stipulated conditions for their arrival here. Ostensibly that included better transportation than the Cebro. It was good that Vallacar Transit later on agreed to the use of its buses for use by the foreign delegations. But the damage had already been done. And the money for the BaSoc had been released in two tranches, way ahead of the games in Bacolod, said Espino.

And, of course, there were questions about the hotel accommodations of the foreign delegates. Even if only as counterpart funds, these expenses should have already been liquidated by now.

And, yes, I also heard that Ricardo Yanson of the Sunshine Boys had taken up the tabs for the renovation of the Paglaum Sports Complex. Yanson, who is an NOHS alumnus, and his fellow Sunshine Boys, must have realized that it was their mission to see to it that the renovation job should be first class. After all, the Paglaum Sports Complex is a legacy they can turn over to the Negros Occidental High School.

Of course, there is still the P10 million expected from the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee headed by ex-Rep. Jose Cojuangco. What I cannot understand is why the BaSoc could not have come up with a preliminary accounting of the funds. There are a lot of rumors about hotel owners and operators complaining about the failure by the BaSoc to pay their bills, especially in the accommodation of the foreign players.

Anyway, there are reports of what they were asked to do before the games. Answers. People need them.*

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